Hitmen speak out on deadly trade as killings surge
‘As long as there is money, we don’t care. There’s always killing that needs to be done. It’s busy constantly’
A SHOCKING surge in contract killings has seen thousands of people assassinated by hitmen across the globe.
Worst cases are the US and South Africa, where a murder can be ordered for only £115.
The alarming rise is the subject of National Geographic’s gripping show Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller.
The 47-year-old investigative journalist enters the shadowy world of the contract killer, meeting a hitman in her home city, Los Angeles, before travelling to South Africa.
When she meets an intimidating assassin, he takes a semi-automatic Glock pistol out of his pocket as a chilling warning.
He cautions her and the film crew that if he finds out he has been set up, “I can easily take all of you out right now”.
Mariana, right, said: “The whole time I’m talking to him, I’m thinking, ‘if a police car shows up by chance, he’s going to think it’s because of us, and we’re going to get killed’.”
Heavily disguised, the LA hitman calmly confesses to taking out more than 10 people.
“Yes, I kill people. I don’t hesitate. No questions asked. It’s never easy but it always gets done,” he says.
According to the research conducted by Swiss think-tank the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, 2,700 people were assassinated globally in 2019 and 2020.
The problem is spiralling out of control in South Africa where, in the past seven years, more than 1,000 people have been killed.
On the outskirts of Johannesburg, Mariana interviews Jojo, a college graduate who claims to have killed almost 30 people.
He says: “As long as there is money, we don’t care. There’s always killing that needs to be done. It’s busy constantly.”
Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller, National Geographic, tomorrow, 10pm